What in the world is going on.....

My favorite one is Parsley Sage Rosemary Thyme.

Frank Zappa pointed out that musicianship isn’t a "pushup contest" and he was right. Also, It's a well documented thing that the brilliant John McLaughlin was astonished and influenced by his friend Jimi Hendrix (as was pretty much anybody else around at the time), jammed with him in NYC, and when Miles asked him about Hendrix he took Miles to see the Monterrey Pop movie in 1969. Miles was also blown away by Hendrix…the rest, as they say, is history.

"This has been one of my complaints that as your system evolves (improves) some poor recordings sound worse "

eh?

surely, everything should sound better, no?

All depends on the recording. They can make good ones if they try. I have the LP of "will the circle be unbroken" and have listen to it since the 70s. Years ago I got the CDs and they were unlistenable. Then they came out with a remasterd version and it was very good. I had the same with a Glen Gould piano recording. It all depends on the care given. I was listening to "jazz at the pawn shop" the music is not great but they set it up in a jazz club and recorded live and it is better than almost any more "advanced" recordings. I remember a recording engneer who wanted to have a simple mike set up but the producer wanted several. He put them up but did not connect them. Afterward the producer said "see, the extra mikes made all the difference". I can remember setting up some speakers that the coustomer insisted HAD to be biamped. So I put 4 in front of the speaker and powered them up but only connected 2 of them. He really liked it but I made the mistake of showing him what I had done. I never saw him again. Don't fool mother nature!

No, no! the better the system the worse bad records sound. The sound is accurate so you hear it warts and all. When I was a dealer I was often ask for a system which makes everything sound good. It is easy to get a system that makes everything sound the same, BAD!